OCR Text |
Show ; ' Richard IRVING BACHELLERj communication w!tn tne ti-!ee!ng rnlnd. If he were to make a serious blunder here our cause would fall. The enemy tries In vain to fool him. Their devices are as an open book to Washington. They have fooled me and Solomon and other officers but not him. I had got quite a conceit of myself my-self in judging strategy, but now it hi all gone. "One day I was scouting along tha lines, a few miles from Philadelphia, when I came upon a little, ragged, old woman. She wished to go through the lines into the country to buy flour. The moment she spoke I recognized her. It was old Lydla Darrah who had done my washing for me the last year of my stay In Philadelphia. " 'Why, Lydia, how do you do?' I asked. " 'The way I have alius done, laddie lad-die buck,' she answered in her good Irish tongue. 'Workin' at the tub an' fightin' the dlvll bad 'cess to him but I kape me hilth an' lucky I am to do that thanks to the good God! How is me fine lad that I'd nlver 'a' knowed but for the voice o' him?' " 'Not ns fine as when I wore the white ruffles but stout as a moose,' I answered. 'The war is a sad business.' " 'It is that may the good God de-find de-find us I We cross the sea to be rid o' the divil an' he follys an' grabs ua be the neck.' "We were on a lonely road. She looked about and seeing no one, put a dirty old needle case In my hands. " 'Take that, me smart lad. It's fer good luck,' she answered. "As I left her I was In doubt of the meaning of her generosity. Soon I opened the needle book and found In one of its pockets a piece of thin paper pa-per rolled tight. On it I found the Information that Howe would be leaving leav-ing the city next morning with five thousand men, and baggage wagons and thirteen cannon and eleven boats. The paper contained other details of tha proposed British raid. I rode post to headquarters and luckily found the general In his tent. On the way I arrived ar-rived at a definite conviction regarding regard-ing the plans of Howe. I was eager to give it air, having no doubt of its soundness. The general gave me respectful re-spectful attention while I laid the facts before him. Then I took my courage In my hands and asked: " 'General, may I venture to express an opinion?" " 'Certainly,' he answered. " 'It Is the plan of Howe to cross the Delaware In hla boats bo as to make us believe that he Is going to New York. He will recross the river ahove Bristol and suddenly descend upon our rear.' CHAPTER XXI Continued. 20 Near King's Ferry in the Highlands on the Hudson they spent a night in the camp of the army under Putnam. There they heard the first note of discontent dis-content with the work of their beloved Washington. It came from the lips of one Colonel Burley of a Connecticut regiment. The commander in chief had lost Newport, New York and Philadelphia Phil-adelphia and been defeated on Long Island and in two pitched battles on ground of his own choosing at Brandy-wine Brandy-wine and Germantown. The two scouts were angry. It had been a cold, wet afternoon and they, with others, were drying themselves around a big, open fire of logs in front of the camp post office. Solomon was quick to answer the complaint of Burley. "He's alius been fightin' a bigger . force o' well-trained, well-paid men that had plenty to eat an' drink an' wear. An' he's fit 'em with jest a shoe string o' an army. When it come to him, it didn't know nothin' but how to shoot an' dig a hole in the ground. The men wouldn't enlist fer more'n six months an' as soon as they'd learnt suthin,' they put fer hum. An' with that kind o' an army, he druv the British Brit-ish out o' Boston. With a leetle bunch o' 5,000 unpaid, barefoot, ragged-backed devils, he druv the British out o' Jersey Jer-sey an' they had 12,000 men in that neighborhood. He's had to dodge eround an' has kep' his army from bein' et up, hide, "horns an' taller, by the power o' his brain. He's managed to take keer o' himself down thar in Jersey an' Pennsylvaney with the British Brit-ish on all sides o' him, while the best fighters he had come up here to help quarters. They met Putnam and two otlicers hurrying toward the scene of the encounter. Solomon had fought in the bush with him. Twenty years before they had been friends and com- j rades. Solomon saluted and stopped the grizzled hero of many a great adventure. ad-venture. "Binkus, what's the trouble here?" the latter asked, as the crowd who had followed the two scouts gathered about them. Solomon gave his account of what had happened. It was quickly verified by many eye-witnesses. "Ye done right," said the general. "Burley has got to take it back an' apologize. He ain't fit to be an officer. He behaved himself like a bully. Any man who talks as he done orto be' cussed an' Binkussed an' sent to the guardhouse." Within three days Burley had made an ample apology for his conduct and this bulletin was posted at headquarters head-quarters : "Liberty of speech has Its limits. It must be controlled by the law of decency de-cency and the general purposes of our army and government. The man who respects no authority above his own intellect is a conceited ass and would be a tyrant if he had tin chance. No word of disrespect for a superior officer offi-cer will be tolerated In this army." "The Blnkussing of Burley" a phrase which traveled far beyond the limits of Putnam's camp and the notice no-tice of warning which followed was not without its effect on the propaganda propa-ganda of Gates and his friends. Next day Jack and Solomon set out with a force of 1,200 men for Washington's Washing-ton's camp at White Marsh near Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. There Jack found a letter UjRLED HIM TO H f'l ! "Washington sat, with his arms folded, looking very grave, but jnada no answer. "In other words, again I presented my conviction. "Still he was silent and I a little era-barrassed.v era-barrassed.v In half a moment I ventured ven-tured to ask : " 'General, what Is your opinion?' "He answered in a kindly tone: 'Colonel Irons, the enemy has no business In our rear. The boats are only for our scouts and spies to look at. The British hope to fool us with them. Tomorrow morning about daylight day-light they will be coming down the Edgely Bye road on our left.' "He called an aid and ordered that our front be made ready for an attaclt in the early morning. "I left headquarters with my conceit con-ceit upon me and half convinced that our chief was out In his judgment of that matter. No like notion will enter my mind again. Solomon and I have quarters on the Edgely Bye road. A little after three nent morning the British were reported coming down the road. A large number of them were killed and captured and the rest roughly rough-ly handled." Snow and bitter winds descended upon the camp early in December. It was a worn, ragged, weary but devoted devot-ed army of about eleven thousand men that followed Washington Into Valley Forge to make n camp for the winter. Of these, two thousand and ninety-eight ninety-eight were unfit for duty. Most of the latter had neither boots nor shoes. They marched over roads frozen hard, with old rags nnd pieces of hide wrapped around their feet. There were many red tracks In the snow In the Valley of the Schuylkill that day Hardly a. man was dressed for cold weather. Hundreds were ' shivering and coughing with Influenza. "When 1 look at these men I cannot help thinking how small are my troubles," trou-bles," Jack wrote to his mother. "I wilj complain of them no more. Solomon Solo-mon and 1 have given away all the clothes we have except those on our backs. A fiercer enemy than the British Is besieging us here. He is winter. (TO EE CONTINUED.) done it d n if I do without the help o' God." "Gates Is a real general," Burley said. "Washington don t amount to a hill o' beans." Solomon turned quickly and advanced ad-vanced upon Burley. "I didn't 'spect to find an enemy o' my kentry In this 'ere camp," he said In a quiet tone. "Ye got to take that back, mister, an' do it prompt, er ye're goin' to be all mussed up." "Ye could see the ha'r begin to brustle under his coat," Solomon was wont to say of Burley, in speaking of that moment. "He stepped up clus an' growled an' showed his teeth an' then he begun to git rooined." Burley had kept a public house for Builors at New Haven and had had the reputation of being a bad man in a quarrel. Of just what happened there Is a full account In a little army journal jour-nal of that time called the Camp Gazette. Ga-zette. Burley aimed a blow at Solomon Solo-mon with his fist. Then as'. Solomon nsed to put it, "the water bu'st through the dam." It was his way of describing the swift and decisive action which was crowded into the next minute. He seized Burley and hurled him to the ground. With one hand on the nape of his neck and the other on the seat of his trousers, Solomon lk'ted his enemy above his head and quoited him over the tent top. Burley picked himself up and having hav-ing lost his head drew his hanger, and, like a mad bull, rushed at Solomon. Suddenly lie found his way barred by Jack. "Would you try to run a man through Defore he can draw?'' the latter asked. Solomon's old sword flashed out of Its seabburd. "Let him come on," he shouted. "I'm more to hum with a hanger than I be with good vlltles." Of all the words on record from the Hps of this man, these are the most Immodest, but it should be remembered remem-bered that when he spoke rhem his blood was hot. Jack gave way and the two came together with a clash of si eel. A crowd had gathered about them and was Increasing rapidly. They had been fighting for half a moment around the fire when Solomon broke the blade of his adversary. The latter drew his pistol ! Before he could raise It Solomon Solo-mon had lred his own weapon. Bur-ley's Bur-ley's pistol dropped on the ground. Instantly In-stantly Its owner reeled and fell beside be-side it. The battle which had lasted no more than a minute had come to Its end. There had been three kinds of fighting In that lively duel. Solomon's voice trembled when he cried out : "Ary man who says a word ag'la' the Great Father is goln' to git mussed op." He pushed his way through the crowd which had gathered around the wounded man. "Let me bind his arm," he said. But a surgeon had stood in the crowd. He was then doing what he could for the shattered member of the hot-headed Colonel Burley. Jack was helping him. Some men arrived with a Utter and the unfortunate officer was quickly on his way to the hospital. Jack and Solomon sel out for head- from Margaret. It had heen sent first to Benjamin Franklin In Paris through the latter's friend, Mr. David Hartley, a distinguished Englishman who was tow and then sounding the doctor on the Eutject of peace. "I am sure that you will be glad to krow that my love for you Is not growing feeble on account of Its age," she wrote. "The thought has come to me that I om England and that you are America. It will be a wonderful and bi Dutiful thing If through all this bitterness bit-terness nnd bloodshed we enn keep our love for each other. My dear, I would have you know that In spite of this alien king and his follower. I hold to my love for you and am waiting wait-ing with that patience which God has put in tie soul of your race and mine, for the 'end of our troubles. If you could come to Frunce I would try tw meet you in Doctor Franklin's home at I'assy. So I have the hope In me that you may be sent to Fr.ince." This is as much of the letter as can claim admission to our history. It gave the young man a supply of happiness happi-ness sufficient to fill the many days of hardship and peril in the winter at Valley Forge. It was read to Solomon. "Say, this 'ere letter kind o' teclies my feelin's does sart'in.' said Solomon. Solo-mon. "I'm goin' to sre what kin bo done." Unknown to Jack, within three days Solomon had n private talk with the commander !n chief at his headquarters. headquar-ters. The latter had n high regard for the old scout. He maintained a dignified digni-fied silence while Solomon made his little speech and then arose and offered his hand, saying in a kindly tone: "Colonel Binkus. I must bid you good night." CHAPTER XXII The Greatest Trait. Jack Irons used to say thnt no man he had known had such an uncommon amount of common sense as George Washington. He wrote to his father: "It would Henm that he must be In |